In May 2005 as a result of SeaWork 20004 Del Norte were successful in gaining our 37'th  port with the Jersey Harbour Company Hydrographic Survey system supply.

 The supplied Survey system will work on an open top work boat and on Jersey Harbour ’s new Damen Work boat “Duke of Normandy”, seen for the first time on it's maiden voyage  at Seawork 05 in Southampton.    

The system is based around the Hypack Max survey software.  This software enables customers to plan surveys, gather survey data, process the data, prepare and produce final products.  However, Hypack will also be used when Buoy Positioning and bed levelling – tasks undertaken using the “Dukes” heavy lift Crane and 9m plough.  

To ensure operation in all weathers, Hypack has been loaded onto a rugged Tough note 4 serial port Laptop P.C.  An idea opportunity to prove how rugged the laptop was came about during the initial demonstration in February this year.  A survey was conducted in St Helier using the work boat, the only problem was having to clear the snow off the laptop screen to run the survey lines!!   

The need for portability is essential, as all the survey equipment is removed from the work boat after each survey.  With that in mind, a CSI DGPS Max DGPS Receiver was supplied for positioning device.  This receiver provides sub-metre accuracy and has the flexibility of a choice of sources of Differential corrections, for example SBAS (WAAS/EGNOS), DBeacon, Omnistar etc.  

Another consideration was the existing Proudman Tide Gauge system already operational at St Helier .  So to ensure real time Tide data is available for all the Survey and bed levelling operations, a set of Pacific Crest EDL Radio Modems were supplied.   

To finally enhance the system, Del Norte supplied an Imagenex SportScan Side scan sonar.  A light weight and very portable survey tool, ideally suitable to the requirements of any Port Authority, for example to locate objects lost in the Harbour and surrounding areas

The unit was fitted to the work boat using an over the side mount, for ease of operation (although it can be towed, if needed)

The SportScan can be used on its own, it can have a GPS input to reference the images and it can be interfaced directly into HypackMax.  This then can be used to produce a Geo-referenced Mosaic of the survey area.  

If you wish to discuss the above, or any other survey requirement please contact

Laurie Smith at Del Norte Technology Ltd. lsmith@del-norte.co.uk  We are waiting for your call.

Del Norte Technology Limited Telephone: +44 (0)1793 827982 Fax:          +44 (0)1793  827984 e-mail: lsmith@del-norte.co.uk